The Helmet of Horror

By Victor Pelevin

Book Overview

Victor Pelevin, the wildly interesting contemporary Russian novelist who The New Yorker named one of the Best European Writers Under 35, upends any conventional notions of what mythology must be with his unique take on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. By creating a mesmerizing world where the surreal and the hyperreal collide, The Helmet of Horror is a radical retelling of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur set in an Internet chat room. They have never met, they have been assigned strange pseudonyms, they inhabit identical rooms that open out onto very different landscapes, and they have entered a dialogue they cannot escape -- a discourse defined and destroyed by the Helmet of Horror. Its wearer is the dominant force they call Asterisk, a force for good and ill in which the Minotaur is forever present and Theseus is the great unknown. The Helmet of Horror is structured according to the way we communicate in the twenty-first century -- using the Internet -- yet instilled with the figures and narratives of classical mythology. It is a labyrinthine examination of epistemological uncertainty that radically reinvents this myth for an age where information is abundant but knowledge ultimately unattainable.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1841957607
• ISBN13: 9781841957609
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Canongate Us
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

A fascinating discussion.

To begin with, this is not a retelling of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. (In my opinion, The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood is a retelling.) It is, rather, a discussion of the Philosophy of Mind between a chorus of stereotypical characters using the details of the myth as a backdrop. It reminds me of a Platonic dialog, examining from different perspectives the methods with which we ascribe meaning to our apprehension of the world around us, and more interestingly, the shortcomings that accompany those methods. Having read it twice, I continue to find it provocative. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys philosophy and labyrinths.

ALL STAR CAST OF NARRATORS FOR THIS SPIN ON AN ANCIENT MYTH

Audiobook aficionados will think they've stumbled upon nirvana when listening to this update on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur as read by eight of the best and brightest narrators to be found. Not only are they all first rate voice performers with wide ranges of experience but they're also award winners - far too many to mention here. Russian novelist Victor Pelevin who was named among the Best European Writers under 35 is anything but conventional. Here, he takes an ancient myth and puts a today spin on it by creating eight characters, all assigned pseudonyms, who sign on to a chat room to discuss philosophy. We may remember that the Minotaur lived in a labyrinth and these characters find themselves in a virtual one. The story opens with Ariadne writing, "I shall construct a labyrinth in which I can lose myself together with anyone who tries to find me - who said this and about what?" This thread is responded to by the other characters who are all in separate spaces, places of which they are not sure - where are they? This is a sci-fi story which some may find puzzling and others enthralling as two of the characters struggle to find each other and others labor to explore their shared predicament. - Gail Cooke

Very interesting

I found this book very intriguing. I can't say I "enjoyed" it -- Pelevin is one of those genius authors, like S. Lem, that I feel I should like, but actually find very difficult. It is like there is a joke and I don't understand the punchline. And maybe I get all the facts of the joke wrong, too. At any rate, this is a retelling of the Theseus/Minataur myth, and is a part of the incredibly wonderful series retelling the old myths by contemporary top authors. I have loved each book in the series, so far (I especially liked Weight, the retelling of Atlas). Pelevin's book sets the labyrinthe as a computer chat room, with the "thread" followed by various people who find themselves each trapped alone in an identical room. Well, we are all in traps, and we all have illusions, etc. So I recommend this interesting book as a part of the series. I'm going to have to work on my understanding of Pelevin, however.